Tag Archives: police

If you live in the DC Metro Area, or if you have been a pedestrian any time of your life, then you probably have crossed the street when you weren’t supposed to. Maybe you were impatient for the lights to change and there weren’t any cars in the street. Perhaps you enjoy living a real-life game of frogger on your way to Starbucks. We all know it’s technically illegal but who’s going to get a ticket for jaywalking?

Well if you work or live in Rosslyn you might end up with a ticket if you don’t follow the pedestrian rules of the road this morning.

Update from the GW Hatchet: Police activity following an altercation led to the escalator shutdown. An “unruly subject” being escorted from GW Hospital tried to grab someone outside, and the recipient of the grab proceeded to pull a knife, cut the grabber, then escape uncaught.

We’re hearing from the tweets that Foggy Bottom Metro has a police situation going on, possibly a stabbing. Metro escalators are taped off and the line for the still-working elevator goes down the block.

While that’s going on, we recommend that any Metro riders about to use Foggy Bottom walk instead to (or from) Farragut West, or catch the Rosslyn Circulator.

(Pic above is from another Foggy Bottom bottleneck incident but pretty much represents the station’s state nowadays even without police situations.)

My pet project involves making sure photographers in the DC area are free to shoot without idiotic restrictions imposed by a sometimes-security-crazed bureaucracy. So it’s with some interest and outrage that I came across this blog post by local photographer Jerome Vorus detailing an incident last Saturday in Georgetown. Vorus claims several MPD officers told him photographing people in public without their consent is illegal, said he was being detained, required his ID, and ran his name through a database before letting him go. Um, what? Continue reading →

I walked by this scene at 31st and M in Georgetown last night: squad cars and yellow tape around a Washington Flyer taxi, its windshield badly cracked, a mangled bicycle under its tires. Vnangia tweets that the accident was fatal. MPD had officers directing traffic around the scene (which got a bit confusing for drivers and pedestrians alike as the traffic lights were still running at the time, nearly causing more accidents), and M Street was backed up significantly. (But then, when isn’t it?)

You know the economy’s bad when you’ve got local officials selling off their “office supplies” to make an extra buck.

Former Morningside, MD Police Chief David Eichelberger was indicted on five counts after allegedly stealing a gun from the Morningside Police Department. To make matters worse, Eichelberger sold the Glock handgun from the back of a police cruiser to a civilian back in July — a month before Eichelberger was named chief of police.

“The person that the former chief sold the gun to eventually notified the mayor of the town of the sale,” Attorney Glenn Ivey said.

Maryland State Police are still investigating the case, but as of now Eichelberger is facing a five year prison sentence.

Picture is a bit fuzz and of poor quality, but I caught a DC cop driving through Georgetown, while chatting away on his cell phone sans hands-free device.

Now while I’ll admit to being occasionally guilty of talking on my cell while driving, shouldn’t our cops be exemplars of the code of law? Granted they’re only human, but come on! The least they can obey common laws while on duty, in uniform and driving a police car!

In DC, I’ve seen specific police traps that target motorists on cell phones. In fact, there’s often one not far from where this picture was taken. Surely, this cop has never been a part of those traps or ticketed anyone for cellphone violation that he himself is guilt of. I mean that would just reek of hypocrisy.

A question that occurs to me is: Could another DC Cop ticket this guy for the violation? Of course that would be a blatant violation of the Brotherhood of the Cop, but feasibly is that possible? Can an on duty officer receive a ticket?

Washington Post tells us that teams of Metro Transit Police with dogs will be conducting random bag searches on trains and buses at times when “heightened vigilance” is required. Passengers will be taken aside at random intervals before boarding buses or entering rail stations to be screened; those who do not comply will not be detained or have their bags confiscated, but they will be denied entry.

The suspect appeared to be asleep when I first saw him, but awoke with some poking from an officer, and left the train peacefully. It was when they started to put handcuffs on him that he began struggling, so he was forced to the ground, where the apprehension — and struggling — continued. Then my train arrived and I had to stop shooting video with my cellphone.

So I was running a bit late for work this morning and took a cab. As we passed through downtown, WTOP on the radio warned of traffic around 18th and K Streets NW, as a pedestrian had been hit by a car around that intersection. As luck would have it, the taxi had just arrived there, and sure enough there was a backup of about half a block — nothing too bad, and I got to work just fine.

Well, guess who hit the pedestrian: Robert Novak, in his black Corvette. He says he didn’t even know he’d hit anyone till a passing biker told him. Police detained Novak on the scene for about an hour and gave him a citation (no arrest); the pedestrian, as yet unnamed, was brought to GWU with arm pain. WJLA has posted a raw video interview with Novak immediately following his emergence from an MPD cruiser.

That’s the gist of what Judge Richard Leon is saying in response to the request from the Partnership for Civil Justice, who want the program that debuted DC’s Trinidad neighborhood from ever being used again. Specifically, he raised the concern that since there’s no current implementation of the “Neighborhood Safety Zones” plan, where exactly would he enjoin the MPD from operating?

Looks like we get to see this one played out only after the MPD tries to put the cordon up around another of DC’s neighborhoods.

If you speed on K Street NW this month, you’re going to meet DC’s finest around 23rd Street as you come from under the Washington Circle tunnel. There, on the right-hand sidewalk will be Mr. Police Man with his laser speed gun, clocking your lead foot and tagging your license with points and fines.

I watched two officers tag-team K Street one afternoon, writing speeding tickets on every batch of cars zipping up the hill, and unlike others, even welcomed my photography. Their goal is speed limit enforcement and they were happy to have ticket-writing publicity.